Martian Manhunter, Earth Pi
by DC3.14159265
Summary: The last surviving Martian is unexpectedly brought to Earth and finds that he might have a place here.
1. Chapter 1

**This entry in the DC Earth Pi universe is written by Grendle1853 and Betaed by DaisyJane, so enjoy!**

In a town in the middle of the United States sits Dr. Erdel's poorly funded lab. Dr. Erdel himself rushes around it fiddling with exposed circuit boards as well as dials and other doodads. The aged experimental physicist who stands around six feet tall, though slightly stooped, has dark brown skin, a shaved head, and a gray goatee and is running around in comfortable clothes and a well worn lab coat.

"Lets see if test number 589 will work," he says to no one in particular.

The door to his lab opens and a young woman with long dark hair, similar coloring and facial features to the good doctor enters. She looks at him and shakes her head, "I thought we agreed that you would take a break to eat after test 585, Dad."

The elderly man looks over at her, smiles, and says, "This test will really only take a minute Shelly."

Shelly sighs and takes a seat on a nearby stool. "Alright," she acquiesces knowing he isn't going to stop anyway.

The Doctor screws back on a couple of panels and asks, "Do you want to know what I think the problem has been?"

"That your transporter has been vaporizing the cans of beans instead of transporting them?" she surmises with a small smile.

"Well, yes, but I believe I know what has been the reason for that occurance. I believe the distance I've been sending the cans has been too small, and the excess energy has... well... destroyed the beans," he explains.

"So you are going to turn down the power?" his daughter suggests.

"No," Erdel scoffs, "I'm going to increase the distance of course."

Shelly raises an eyebrow at that. "How far are you going to try to send it?" she asks with open curiosity.

Her dad looks over at her, smiles, and says, "How does Mars sound?"

"Mars? You haven't been able to Star Trek beam a can four feet but you think you can send it to another planet? Dad I love you but I think I know why your having a hard time getting funding," she states skeptically.

"Listen, with my current equipment I can't lower the energy and still bend space enough for transportation, so my only choice is to increase the distance. The increase in distance is...significant I'll admit but I think it will give me my first successful teleportation," he explains.

"Alright old man, wow me," she says sardonically.

Dr. Erdel sighs at her obvious low expectations and finishes calibrating his instruments, then puts a can of beans in the middle of a flat metal platform. That done he gets a good distance away and sits in a chair next to his daughter, flips a few switches and pulls a leaver. Around the lab machines hum and come to life, lights go on and off, and the flat platform beneath the can of beans begins to glow. After a brief flicker of darkness over the platform all the machinery calms down again and the can of beans is magically gone.

"That was certainly different," Shelly says.

"Yes. There was no blinding light and no smell of ionized metal and beans in the air," he says happily.

"Is there any way to be sure it worked?" she asks.

"We could bring it back," the good doctor suggests.

"You can do that?" she asks again with a raised eyebrow.

"One way to find out!" the scientist exuberantly exclaims before flipping a serious of dials back the other way, then hitting a few switches and pulling the lever again. Once again the platform glows and there is a brief flicker of darkness.

Once the darkness clears Dr. Erdel and his daughter look up to see something amazing standing on the experimental transporter. The sight on the platform is not just a simple can of beans but a green humanoid who stands almost seven feet tall. Its head is long and reaches up into a pointed end at the top, the face on it consisting of two bright red eyes and an almost human mouth. Its arms are long and end in hands with three long fingers and one thumb. The two legs supporting the creature are long as well and end in toeless feet. The thing's torso consists of wide shoulders, a muscular looking chest, and a rather flat stomach. The only clothing the green man wears is a pair of red straps which cross across his chest and form an X and what look to be dark blue shorts. And in the creature's hand it holds the can of beans.

As the scientist and his daughter stand there frozen in shock, the tall green man looks around surprised but calm. When he finally catches sight of the two humans, he begins to speak, and while the words coming out of his mouth sound like an alien foreign language to them, in their minds they hear a strong male voice translating.

"Um...hello," the green man says, "I am J'onn J'onzz, last of the people of Mars." He holds up the can of beans and asks, "Is this yours?"

Dr. Erdel gets up and begins slowly walking to the alien before him, but before he can cover half the distance a look of pain crosses his face and he clutches his chest as he falls to the floor.

"Dad!" Shelly shouts finally shaken out of her shock. Ignoring the seven foot alien in the room she runs to the still form of her father on the ground. She shakes him trying to rouse him before feeling for his pulse then, not finding one, then pulling out her phone.

J'onn steps down from the platform and walks towards the humans with worry in his eyes. "What's wrong?" he asks.

"What's wrong is that I think my dad is having a heart attack!" she continues hitting the same four buttons on her phone before screaming, "Why isn't this working!"

The Martian leans down and looks into Shelly's eyes, getting her attention. "What can we do for him?"

"We need to get him to a hospital, and we need to do it now," she answers.

J'onn reaches down and gently and easily lifts the fallen Doctor. "Lead the way," he tells her.

Ignoring the strangeness of the situation Shelly leads the tall green man out of the lab, through the rest of the building, and out to her car. As she fumbles with her keys she says, "The hospital is miles away, we'll never make it there in time."

In response J'onn takes hold of her waist, drawing her to him, and before her eyes he easily lifts them all into the night sky. She looks around her in pure wonderment as the Martian quickly and impossibly flies all three of them a hundred feet into the air. "You must guide me," J'onn tells her, getting Shelly's attention.

"That way, look for a big white building," she directs.

The green man from Mars nods and begins flying at great speed in the direction she

points. In seconds, the two land in front of the hospital, greatly surprising several people standing outside.

"Help, my dad's dying!" Shelly shouts at a nurse as J'onn lowers him to the ground.

The nurse runs inside and soon comes out with two orderlies wheeling a stretcher, who soon have her father on it and are charging inside at full speed as the nurse leads his daughter in. As Shelly walks in behind her father she looks back to see that the Martian has gone. She quickly shakes her confusion off and follows the nurse.

As the doctors struggle to save Dr. Erdel, J'onn floats high in the still air over the hospital. He looks around at the unfamiliar architecture and vegetation of the town, as well as at the funny looking aliens running about within it. _So strange, _he thinks to himself. _I wonder where I am now._

Closing his eyes J'onn instead reaches out with his mind. His mind's eye brushes through the surface thoughts of a few people in the town below him. He sees a few dreams of sleeping children, feels the intense feelings of a couple making love, picks up a large amount of lazy, random thoughts from those people watching something called television and one mind filled with panic and fear. He focuses on that mind and flies to it as quickly as he can.

In under a minute he gets to his destination, a quiet and empty parking lot. There three large and muscular men circle around a much smaller guy. The poor fellow is holding his nose, which is currently dripping blood as he walks backwards with his hands in the air. "Please...please don't hit me again. I didn't mean to start any trouble," the smaller man says.

"You should have thought about that before you called the cops!" one of the larger men shouts back. "Because of you, I can't go back to my own damn house and that bitch gets to keep everything thats mine!"

"I'm sorry!" the other man shouts, his back hitting a parked car.

"Not yet you're not, but you're gonna be!" the brute shouts while cocking back his hand.

Before the man delivers the blow J'onn lands behind the three attackers and says, "You have no right to harm this man, leave now and without violence."

The three men turn and are shocked to see the tall green alien standing there. "What the Hell are you?" the one who talked before asks.

"My name is J'onn J'onzz," he answers calmly.

"Really? Boys why don't you teach this freak why he shouldn't stick his nose...or a... ugly face where it doesn't belong!" the leader says.

The two other men glance at each other before one of them steps forward, pulls back his arm, and swings at J'onn's face with all his might. The Martian doesn't dodge, he doesn't wince, he doesn't even turn his head. He just takes it on the chin and lets the man hit him with full force. A second later his foolish attacker is on the ground cradling his broken hand. His partner, seeing this, pulls out a knife and attacks the green man with that instead of his bare fist. J'onn grabs his thrusting arm and uses it to spin the man head over feet to fall back first on to the ground.

The Martian looks up and sees the final aggressor holding a straight razor to the smaller man's throat and using him as a human shield. "You stay back freak or I'll cut this punk!" he shouts.

J'onn looks at him for a second, then the alien turns transparent and sinks into the ground. The brute looks around in a state of panic, keeping the blade at his hostage's throat.

"Don't even think about trying anything freak! I'll do it, I'll kill this punk!" he shouts at the empty air.

Behind the knife wielding man and his victim J'onn raises up from the ground and turns solid. Then he grabs hold of the man's arm (the one holding the knife) and pulls it painfully away from his victim's throat. Once the small man is free J'onn delivers a light tap to the back of the last brute's head, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious.

"There, you are safe now," J'onn tells the small man.

The little guy takes one look at J'onn, then turns tail and runs away in fright. The green man looks at the man's retreating form and says, "Hmm, he seems to have been frightened by my appearance."

J'onn looks behind him and sees his reflection in the car's mirror. He looks up and sees a billboard advertising a local men's clothing store. As he stares at it his appearance and form begins to shift and change until he stands there in the shape of a tall human with dark skin dressed in a pair of jeans and red shirt, looking eerily similar to the model on the billboard. He looks at his new face in the mirror before saying, "This will do for now." Then he turns around and walks into the night.

_TBC. Reviews are always welcome!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to everyone who left a review so far, and thanks to the Lady Isis for betaing this chapter.**

After waking up next to her father's hospital bed, being told by the doctor that he needed to stay in hospital for a few days, and assuring her dad that he didn't imagine anything, Shelly Erdel takes a taxi back to her father's home/lab. When the taxi drives away and she starts walking to the door, a large black man in a red shirt walks up behind her eating from a open bag of Oreos.

"These may be the most tasty things in creation," he tells her following her up the stairs to the door.

With the door open she turns to the man and asks, "Excuse me, am I supposed to know you or is that just the worst pick up line ever?"

The man looks around for a second before turning back into his tall martian form. Shelly nearing shrieks in surprise at this when the tall green man says, "It's alright, its me."

"Yeah, I remember _you_. Come inside before someone sees you," she orders, gesturing for him to come inside.

J'onn quietly follows her inside as she closes the door behind him. "How is your father?" he asks.

"The doctors say he's going to be okay as long as he stays in the hospital for a few days and takes it easy once he gets out," Shelly answers. "Thank you for asking."

He nods. "Well, I am partially responsible for his condition," he says.

"_Well_, you also probably saved his life," she tells him. "Look I wish I could just flip a few switches and send you back home, but I'm an art major and I got no clue how to make that thing work."

"That's fine. Like I said I'm the last of my kind, so I have nothing left to return to. In a way...accidentally bringing me here was probably the best thing you could have done for me," he tells her.

"So you don't want to go home?" Shelly asks, confused.

"Like I said, I don't really have a home to go back to, and Earth looks like a beautiful and fascinating place, with interesting people and," he stops and looks down at one of the cookies intently, like it is the grandest and most beautiful thing in the world, "such amazing things."

"Where did you get those?" Shelly asks.

"An elderly woman gave them to me as an award for getting her cat out of a tree. Would you like one?" J'onn asks. Shelly shrugs, takes one out of the bag and bites into it. The two then spend a few minutes eating the cookies before the Martian asks, "You said you were an artist?"

"Um...yeah," she answers. "If you really want to see my stuff follow me, my dad has some of my work hanging up," she says leading him to another room. One wall of the other room is covered in pencil sketches and paintings. "My stuff is very Japanese manga inspired," she says as J'onn looks at the pieces intently.

"Very beautiful," the Martian says.

"Thank you," Shelly answers, a smile on her face.

"What are these creatures?" he asks.

She laughs a bit at that then explains, "They're people- er, humans, they're just cartoonish and stylized."

"Oh, I see," J'onn says. Then before her eyes he shape shifts into people from her paintings, one by one in succession.

"That's amazing," Shelly tells him.

"Thank you," J'onn says returning to his natural form.

Shelly gets a weird look on her face and looks the martian up and down before asking, "Are you...naked?"

"What? No," he answers pointing to the red straps across his chest and the blue shorts he's wearing, "I'm wearing clothing."

"Yeah I can see that, but your changing your body into different forms, does that mean that the clothes I'm seeing are just part of you in that form now?" she asks.

"Oh no, my wife..." he pauses for a second as a sorrowful memory passes over his face before he continues. "My wife created this organic fabric. It can change shape and color to telepathic commands. She based the technology on my own physiology."

"What do you mean on your physiology? Can't- Couldn't the other martians shape change?" she asks.

"No," J'onn answers. "While my people were telepathic, otherwise they were not that different from you. I however was born with some...unique abilities."

"Such as?" Shelly asks.

"As you know I can shape change and fly, I can also change my density and am much stronger and more durable then most martians or humans," he explains.

"So you're a super martian?" she asks.

He pauses for a second at that. "I've never heard myself described like that, but I suppose that fits," he answers.

"Cool," Shelly says. "Well, your wife designed clothes, what did you do?"

"I used my abilities to help my people in anyway I could," he explains. "I caught criminals, fought monsters, I even helped repel an alien invasion once."

"So you are like a martian superhero?" Shell asks.

"Superhero?" J'onn asks.

"Yeah, that's what we call people like that, here," she says pulling out her phone and starts scrolling through images. She stops when she gets to a man flying through the sky wearing a blue costume with a red cape and a red S on his chest. "Like this guy, he's called Superman and he's from Metropolis. He can fly, he's bulletproof, really strong, and he can shoot lasers out of his eyes. According to the news he's an alien too."

"Really? He looks rather human to me," J'onn says.

"Yeah I don't really get that," she answers scrolling through the images again until she comes to a black man in a green mask and green costume, holding a glowing green lantern with a green metal ring on his finger. "This guy is Green Lantern, he can make all sorts of stuff with his ring. There is also supposed to be a guy in Gotham called Batman, but no one's gotten a picture of him yet."

"Interesting. This world might actually have a place for me," J'onn says. Then he returns to the form of a black man in a red shirt and pair of blue jeans. "Thank you for the hospitality, Shelly, and give your father my best. I think I'm going to do a bit more exploring."

As J'onn is walking towards the door Shelly gets his attention. "J'onn?" Once he turns to her she asks, "Your wife, your people...what happened to them?"

"They were killed in a sort of...terrorist attack," he stops as the pain of the memory is almost too much for him. "I'm sorry, its been centuries, yet somehow the pain is still fresh. I promise though one day I will tell you the full story."

"Does that mean I'll see you again?" she asks.

"Of course," he answers, walking out.

…

A few hours later J'onn is walking down the street when he sees a woman putting missing child posters up on the back of a bus stop. He feels the sorrow from the woman but also the hope that what was taken from her might be returned, that her little boy might still be out there waiting for her.

He stops behind her and asks, "What's his name?"

The woman turns to him with hope in her eyes. "Joseph, Joseph Certa! Have you seen him?" she asks, handing him one of the posters.

"No, I'm sorry," J'onn tells her. The woman deflates a bit at that and looks very tired. "What happened to him?"

"We don't know. The police showed us a store security video, it showed a big man grabbing him off the street and throwing him in a car before driving away. He was on his way home from the bus stop," she answers.

J'onn looks into her mind, looks into her memories with her son, sees how happy and smart he is at least through her eyes, and it brings back some memories of a young girl who was taken from this world long before her time. He then looks through her memory of the security video, memorizing every detail she remembers from the scene especially of the big man who grabbed the boy. "I will find you son, Mrs. Certa," he tells her before walking off.

"Wait...who are you?" she asks his retreating form.

"I am J'onn J'onzz," he answers.

"John Jones? Are you some kind of detective?" she asks.

He stops for a moment, looks back at her and answers, "Yes I am," before continuing on his way, now on a mission.

…

J'onn spends the rest of the day taking the poster around, showing it to everyone he can and asking them if they have any information on the boy or the people who took them. When he talks to the people he also scans their minds, searching for any clue they might have. As the sun starts to set he finally catches a break. He talks to a scantily dressed woman standing on a corner, and when he asks her she says that she doesn't know anything about it, but in her mind she is forcing herself not to look at the dangerous man across the street.

J'onn looks where she refuses to and sees a group of guys standing around an expensive car. While none of the men look like the one who grabbed Joseph, one of men's head has the same profile of the getaway driver.

J'onn calmly walks across the street, gets his attention by saying, "Excuse me, have you seen this missing boy," and shows him the poster.

The getaway driver's friends decide that they have better places to be and the man in question looks at the poster, recognizes who it is and answers, "Sorry buddy, never seen the kid before. If you can excuse me I got places to be and people to see." And with that he steps into his car.

J'onn lowers his body density to near nothing and slips into the car before returning to solid form and coming to rest sitting on the vehicle's back seat. "You're lying to me, Mr. Buckland," J'onn says.

Buckland whips around in shock, pulling a pistol and pointing it at the man who mysteriously appeared in his car. "How the hell did you get in here, and how the hell do you know my name?" he yells.

"It is really in your best interest to simply tell me why the boy was taken and most importantly where he is," J'onzz calmly tells him.

"Yeah? Well it would have been in your best interest not to have fucked with me!" Buckland shouts before firing three shots into his chest, the people on the street fleeing at the sound of the gunfire. To the criminal's surprise the black man in his back seat seems unaffected, and a few seconds later even the bullet holes in his shirt close up before his eyes.

As Buckland looks on completely shocked, J'onn grabs his arm, twists it around painfully, and removes the gun from his hand. "Where is Joseph Certa?" J'onn asks again.

"Go to hell," Buckland shouts in pain, but in his mind he thinks, _What the hell has Miller gotten me into?_

"Miller hired you, where is he?" J'onn asks, keeping the pressure on the man's wrist.

"I told you where you can go, freak!" the getaway driver shouts in answer.

As Buckland is feeling unhelpful, the Martian hero has no choice but to look through his mind. He quickly gets past the feeling of pain and the criminal's surface thoughts and starts probing through his memories looking for Miller. He finds that Miller is in fact Michael Miller, a strong man for the local criminal community. Miller had hired Buckland as a driver for a series of abductions, all children, and that Joseph was among them. Miller hadn't told Buckland the reason for the kidnappings but the driver does know where the children were taken. The knowledge now taken J'onn tells man in his grip, "Thank you," before knocking him unconscious with a light backhand.

J'onn steps out of the Buckland's car just in time for a police car to pull up. A lady officer steps out with her weapon drawn and pointing at J'onn saying, "Hands in the air, now!"

The Martian does as she commands asking, "Is there a problem, officer?"

"What are you doing here?" she asks.

"I was asking Mr. Buckland if he had any information about a missing child I'm looking for," J'onn answers, handing her the poster still in his hand.

While keeping her weapon on J'onn she takes the poster, looks at it, then hands it back to him. "We got a call that shots were fired here," she says.

"Do I look like I've been shot?" J'onn asks her.

"No," she says.

"Does he?"

Keeping her weapon and her eyes on the man in front of her, she reaches over and checks the pulse of man unconscious at the wheel. Finding him to be alive she asks, "What happened to Bucky here?"

"He seems to have fallen unconscious," J'onn answers. "Perhaps he was tired."

"Really?" she asks sarcastically. "What's your name?"

"J'onn J'onzz," the disguised Martian answers. He reads the officer's mind and finds that she is about to ask him for identification. He suppresses that thought and asks, "What is yours?"

"Officer Callahan," she answers. "Why are you looking for the kid, Mr. Jones?"

"I'm a detective," J'onn answers.

Callahan holsters her weapon, looks him up and down, and says, "Really? Because you don't dress like a PI."

"How are detectives supposed to dress?" J'onn asks.

"Lets just say a suite wouldn't heart," she answers.

"I'll keep that in mind," he tells her. "If you excuse me Officer, I have a child to find."

"Stay out of trouble Mr. Jones," she says to his back as J'onn walks away.

_TBC. Reviews are welcome._


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and thanks to The Lady Isis for being my beta. Now here is chapter 2!**

Now with the location of his target in mind J'onn heads to an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town. Buckland never even got out of his car, much less walked inside, so the Martian has no idea what he will find inside. Never the less J'onn is determined to find the Certa boy and all the other children who were taken. When he gets to the warehouse in question, the Martian floats down to the ground, shape changes back into a human form, and phases through a wall.

Once inside, J'onn sees the children are held in cages with one on an operating table while an elderly man in a lab coat prepares some syringes. J'onn walks up to the table and releases the unconscious girl from the restraints and begins to lift her up when the man in the lab coat turns and notices him.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" he asks.

"I am J'onn J'onzz, and I am here to rescue the children you've abducted, and turn you and your conspirators in to the authorities," J'onn answers as he picks the child up.

"Sorry, but I'm not going to allow that to happen. Miller!" the other man calls out.

Answering the call, Michael Miller steps into the room. He asses the situation quickly and walks confidently up to J'onn. "I don't know who you are, pal, but I went through a lot to get a hold of these kids for the Doc, and I don't intend to just let you walk out with them," Miller explains, cracking his knuckles.

J'onn lays the girl down off to the side and turns to face the large man. He sees that Miller is about to punch him, and like he did before he just stands there ready to take the hit. Unlike when he was punched by a human before this blow throws him backwards and slams him back first into a wall.

"What are you?" J'onn asks as he gets back to his feet.

"Growing up people called me a freak, the Doc calls me a 'Meta-human'. What I am is too much for a punk like you," Miller answers swinging another punch straight at J'onn's face.

This time though J'onzz stops Miller's fist by grabbing it with his left hand, then he reverts to his true Martian form much to the criminal's surprise. "Or not..." Miller stammers before J'onn backhands him in the face, punches him in the gut, before finally picking him up throwing him back in the direction that he came, causing the large man to crash into and destroy the medical bed.

Alerted by the sounds of battle, several armed thugs run in. "Boss, what's...what the hell is _that_?" one of the men demands, before they all aim their guns at the seven foot tall alien.

"You guys get the Doc and the brats out of here, I'll keep the jolly green giant busy," Miller tells them, popping back to their feet.

"Leave the children be," J'onn orders the men as the Meta-human walks up to him.

"You've got problems of your own," Miller tells him, starting a new attack.

Even though the criminal is outclassed by the powerful shape changing alien, Miller is still strong enough, tough enough, and a good enough fighter to keep J'onn busy until his men and the Doctor are able to get away with tranquilized children. Eventually though J'onn sprouts two more arms and simply pounds the Meta-human into submission before knocking him back into the table covered with chemicals, spilling the liquids onto the floor.

As J'onn walks over to interrogate the man a spark from a broken piece of equipment lights the pool of chemicals on fire and J'onn recoils from the flames in obvious fear. Miller looks up in time to see this and laughs. "Looks like something can hurt you huh?" he asks before throwing another jar of chemicals on J'onn and setting him alight with a burning piece of debris.

Now on fire J'onn howls - an alien noise born of pure pain - before flying straight through a wall. With about half of his body engulfed in flames J'onn flies quickly through the night before seeing a pool and dive bombing straight into it.

A man comes out of his house to investigate the noise. "Anyone there?" he asks brandishing a broom like a weapon.

Then the Martian resurfaces with visible burns on his left arm, chest, and neck scaring the man, who yells in fright and runs straight back into his house. Too weak to fly, J'onn painfully pulls himself out of the water, opens a door on the fence surrounding the pool, and stumbles into the night.

…

Still at her father's place and now worried out of her mind Shelly Erdel watches the news as reporters talk about a mysterious fire at an abandoned warehouse and then about another spotting of the green humanoid creature close by. She turns off the TV only to hear a knock at the door. She walks over and opens it to see J'onn hurt and barely standing. She then removes the chain and helps her alien friend inside even as he begins to pass out due to his wounds.

…

Back at the warehouse, Officer Callahan looks at the burned-out cages and various destroyed computers and equipment surrounded by other cops and the forensics team. "What the hell was going on here?" she asks no one in particular.

"Who knows?" a detective answers. "Maybe it had something to do with that green freak who decided to take a swim a few blocks away."

"Hey, enough with that. Unless something weird comes up we are going to investigate under the assumption that the perps are human, you all understand?" the lieutenant tells them.

Looking around, Callahan can't stop thinking about the odd encounter she had today with the PI, for some reason. She doesn't know why this crime scene is making her think about Mr. Jones, but she decides that she should look into him. "Hey, boss, you mind if I cut out of here?" she asks.

"Sure we got more than enough here for this already," the lieutenant tells her.

Getting into her car she grabs her phone, calls up a number and asks, "Hey Sal? I need a favor. I'm looking for a PI. He's new to town, says his name's John Jones. Get me all you can find on him."

…

J'onn awakens several hours later in a bathtub filled with ice. He looks at his wounds and sees that they are healing well and that they will be completely gone in a few more hours.

The door opens and Shelly walks in exclaiming, "Oh thank God you're awake!" She then kneels down by his side explaining, "I didn't know what to do so I did the best that I could. I was so worried you weren't going to make it. What happened, J'onn?"

"I was tracking down a child that was kidnapped. I found him and the kidnappers...and they defeated me," he answers.

She points to his wounds and says, "They burned you?"

"Yes. Fire has always been my enemy," he explains. Then he lays back and looks up at the ceiling saying, "The last time I was defeated by an adversary was three hundred years ago, I had nearly forgotten the feeling. The last time millions of lives were lost due to my failure, this time only a handful may be doomed. I guess thats something of an improvement, but it doesn't feel like one."

"You can talk to me, J'onn," Shelly tells him. "Its been forever since you have been able to spill to someone, and I can be that someone. If you need me to be."

He looks over at her and asks, "Do you really wish to know me, Shelly Erdel?"

When she nods her head he takes her hand and tells her to close her eyes. She does as he asks and he leads her through his memories.

_I was born on Mars three hundred and seventy eight years ago. My people were living in a golden age, _he tells her as she flies through alien cities, filled with green people like J'onn all under a red sky. _Our society had recently needed to be rebuilt as a few hundred years earlier a monster had brought down countries with his own hands, murdered thousands, and enslaved thousands more, _J'onn explains as drawings in a Martian history books pass before her eyes. _That monster was a Martian man named Fernus and he had powers unlike others of his race. Powers that included superior strength durability and regeneration, density control, and the ability to fly and change his physical form. When I started to display those powers it caused understandable...concern. _

Shelly sees memories of martians looking at him with fear, even hate, in their eyes."They were afraid of you. Your people, your family..." Shelly says aloud as she sees this.

_Yes, but given the history I do not blame them. Through my actions I was eventually able to earn the trust and respect of my people as I used my powers to help them. _

As he explains this Shelly sees images of J'onn apprehending criminals, fighting bizarre creatures and robots. She then sees what looks like a Martian woman and feels the love J'onn does for her. Then she sees, years later, a smaller Martian girl in J'onn's arms as the woman looks on and smiles.

"Your family?" she asks.

_Yes, my wife, M'yri'ah, and my daughter, K'hym, _he answers bitter sweetly. _We lived well for a time and I loved them with all of my being. Unfortunately I was not an only child. _

Then, in her minds eye Shelly sees a Martian man who looks a lot like J'onn, only his skin is white."Your brother," she says.

_My twin brother, Mal'fic. While I was born with unique abilities, Mal'fic was born with a rare birth defect that left him without the natural Martian telepathic abilities and left his skin with no pigment. My brother would grow hateful of society, eventually finding others with the same defect, bringing them together to form a sort of terrorist group. They called themselves the Whites. _

Shelly sees violent and destructive acts committed by Mal'fic and his followers, including several when he clashes against J'onn."You were forced to fight your own brother," she says.

_Unfortunately my brother was not simply a misanthropic criminal, he also had a brilliant scientific mind talented in the fields of biochemistry and genetic engineering. He would often use biological weapons in his terrorist attacks, but one horrible day he unleashed something so terrible he must have thought it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. _

In her mind, Shelly sees a Martian city street, filled with green people of all sorts. Soon all at once they all begin screaming in pain. Some look at themselves in horror, others try to roll on the ground, while others throw liquid on themselves. Vehicles crash and children cry as every Martian begins to fall to the ground in agony.

"What- What is this?" Shelly asks, appalled by what she sees.

_After all this time I still don't truly know, but it spread like a plague and struck down every Martian man, woman and child (at least all who were telepathic) and it filled them with agonizing pain of being burned alive._

"Even...?" Shelly asks.

_Yes, even me. _She sees J'onn himself, on the ground withering in agony over the mental flames. _However it appears that only true fire can destroy me, thus after what felt like an eternity the phantom inferno subsided and I lived. Very soon though I deeply wished I hadn't. _

Shelly sees through J'onn's eyes as he kneels down next to the bodies of M'ryi'ah and K'hym, looks of pure agony stuck still on their faces. She feels the complete soul crushing sadness and rage well up inside the man.

"Oh J'onn, I am so sorry," Shelly tells him, squeezing his hand in an attempt to comfort her friend as tears streamed down her cheeks.

_Thank you, _he answers.

"What happened to the Whites?" she asks after a few moments.

_I happened to them. _She sees J'onn, enraged, attack Mal'fic and his followers. _Blinded by pain and hate I found them and attacked. As they were not expecting me to survive their attack I caught them by surprise and killed many of them before they were able to retreat back into their base. I bashed my way inside, intent in my rage to kill my brother and the rest of those who destroyed all that I loved. I slew several others of the group before some activated the emergency destruct. I was barely able to make it out before the whole place went up, and I found no evidence that anyone else survived._

"So then you were alone," Shelly says.

_Not quite. _

Shelly sees other white Martians, but these are not armed and dressed like the others she has seen in J'onn's memories.

_Not all who carried the birth defect joined my brother in his mad cause, a few tried to live out their lives as good upstanding people despite their disability and they survived the psychic attack as well. I found them and brought them together, the last of the great Martian race. But the same defect that robed them of their telepathic sense and turned them white also greatly decreased their ability to reproduce. Sadly I did not share my brother's talent with biological science, so after a few decades I buried the last of my people and spent the next few centuries alone._

Shelly lets go of his hand and looks into his eyes. "So along with the rest of your powers you live a lot longer then you're supposed to too?" she asks.

"Yes," he answers, "yet another one of my 'gifts'." He looks back up at the ceiling. "So now you see, Shelly, I'm not a hero, super or otherwise. I'm just a man who failed when it mattered the most and watched as his world burned."

"J'onn, you've gone through a kind of hell that I can barely imagine, but I've seen some of what you did and it seemed pretty heroic to me. In fact in the short time I've known you you have saved my father, if the news is right you saved a man from a bunch of guys who were going to kill him, and you even helped an old lady get her cat out of a tree," Shelly tells him. "On top of all of that you were going to rescue a kid just because you thought it was right, without any thought for yourself. So in my book you're a hero, J'onn J'onzz." J'onn looks over at her and sees the sincerity on her face. Then he begins to pull himself out of the bath. "Where do you think you're going?" she asks, trying to help him up.

"There are some children I still need to save," he answers.

When he gets out of the bathroom he sees a drawn picture on a nearby table. He picks it up and sees its a picture of him, only with a slightly less pointed head and with a nose, dressed in a full body outfit that is mostly black but still has the red X on the chest and blue boots, blue gloves, a blue belt, and a blue cape that ends is a large swept collar.

He looks at Shelly and asks her, "What's this?"

"I drew that today. Its you as...a superhero," she admits.

J'onn looks back down at the picture and changes his body and clothes to match what's on the page. He then hands the drawing back to her and says, "Thank you, Shelly."

"Be careful," she tells him, giving him a hug.

"I will," J'onn answers, returning the hug. Then he turn translucent and insubstantial before flying out straight through the roof.

_TBC. Reviews are appreciated._


	4. Chapter 4

**I'd like to thank everyone who was nice enough to leave a review, and I'd like to thank The Lady Isis for being the beta for this chapter. Here is the final chapter!**

Deciding that the police may have been able to salvage some evidence from the burned down warehouse J'onn starts scanning with his telepathic senses through the city, looking for the one police officer he's met so far. Finding Officer Callahan he phases through her apartment building wall and shape shifts into his human form before knocking on her door. Before she gets close enough to look through her peep hole he remembers what she said earlier and changes his clothing into a dark blue suit with a red tie. After the officer sees its him she opens the door.

She is dressed in an over sized Iron Maiden T shirt and pair of jean shorts, and as soon as she opens the door she points her gun at J'onn and asks, "How the hell do you know where I live?"

"I am a detective," J'onn calmly answers.

"Oh really?" Callahan answers, motioning for him to come inside while keeping the barrel of the weapon pointed at him. "Because I asked a few buddies of mine to look into you, and they didn't find any evidence of a detective John Jones in the whole state."

"I'm not from this state," he answers honestly.

"Then where are you from?" she asks.

"A whole world away," J'onzz answers calmly. "Now I'd love to share my life story with you another day officer, but right now I'm on the trail of Michael Miller. He is in the employ of some disturbed doctor who I believe is experimenting on the children that Miller and his friends abducted."

"Miller works for the Getaway King, just like over half the thugs in this town," Callahan tells him.

"Getaway King?" J'onn asks.

"You really are new around here aren't you?" she asks finally pointing her gun away from him. "He's a crime boss who's damn good at keeping himself secret and at making sure his boys get away scot-free. No fingerprints, no video, and so far all of his crew have gotten away after every job they pull."

"Then how do you know that Miller works for him?" J'onn asks.

"Because low time thugs aren't known for keeping their mouths shut, so word gets around. Still don't have any real evidence on Miller or any of the others, but we all know who holds his leash," the policewoman explains.

J'onn thinks about this for a moment, but decides that the Getaway King is a problem for another day. "Someone so cautious and meticulous probably wouldn't risk the operation that Miller is doing now, so I doubt the King has any connection to his current crime spree," he says.

"You think Miller is doing this on the side? That won't make the King happy," Callahan remarks.

"No, but it does mean that there is a good chance that unlike the other crime scenes that Miller has left behind, something will have been left. Can you find out if your forensics team has discovered anything at the warehouse?" J'onn asks.

"Why should I give you any of that information?" she asks him.

"Because Officer Callahan I can save those children, and I believe that somehow you know that," J'onn calmly tells her.

She glares at him for a moment. All of her training and common sense tells her that man in front of her is full of crap and she should either arrest him for something or just tell him to go shove it, but her gut is telling her something very different, and if she has to choose Callahan always goes with her gut.

"Wait there a minute," she tells him before going over to her computer. After a bit of searching she prints off a few pages and hands them to J'onn. "This is all our lab boys were able to find."

"Thank you, Harriet," he says, taking the pages from her.

"It's Officer Callahan," she tells him, "and I am stupidly sticking my neck out for you by giving you that, so just know that if this decision comes back to haunt me then I'm going to be haunting you!"

"Thank you very much, Officer Callahan," J'onn tells her before leaving the apartment.

…

The police forensics team was not able to find out much, but they were able to figure out what chemicals were in the lab when it burned to the ground. With a few hours of research J'onn was able to find out the best source for such chemicals in the city, and after a bit of persuasion and mind reading he was able to find out that source had sent a batch of the exact same chemicals after the destruction of the warehouse lab. Now with the address in mind and in his new "superhero" form J'onn speeds through the sky, ready for round two.

Finding the new lab now in an abandoned office building, J'onn hovers outside the walls and reaches inside with his mind's eye. He telepathically finds the children first, all still alive but still unconscious. Next he moves to their kidnappers, who along with their firearms several now are carrying flamethrowers. Miller himself is carrying one of the napalm fueled weapons and is personally guarding the Doctor and his young test subjects.

_I seem to have left quite an impression, _J'onn thinks to himself.

Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, J'onn phases his way inside and keeps himself in the walls. When he comes to one of the flamethrower wielding goons he quietly floats out of the wall, grabs hold of of the weapon while simultaneously wrapping his other arm around the criminal's throat, and then squeezes until the lack of air and blood flow causes the man to pass out. The Martian then crushes barrel of the weapon and returns to the wall.

J'onn moves through the deserted building like an extraterrestrial ghost until he finds two more members of the gang, one armed with another flamethrower the other just with a common firearm, patrolling down a section of hallways and empty rooms together. The Martian makes them think that they hear two sounds, one ahead of them and one behind them, and the pair predictably decide to split up to identify the source of the noises. He waits for the two to create some distance between themselves before he floats out and begins to silently take out the one with the flamethrower exactly like he took out the one before, unfortunately his friend for some reason turns around and sees their green adversary. The gunman is able to get off a few shots before J'onn sprouts a third arm which stretches out and a delivers a knockout blow to the thug's face.

The gunfire gets the attention of the rest of the gang though and one rounds the corner and points his flamethrower at the alien. Before he can ignite the Martian (and the criminal's partner in his arms) J'onn flings his captive at the gang member hard enough to knock him back into the wall, knocking the two kidnappers out. Afterwards though the last gunman comes from the same direction, sees J'onn, and then picks up the gun of one of the flamethrowers and shoots a giant gout of flame at him.

The entire room that J'onn was standing in goes up in flames, but luckily the sprinkler system still works in the old building and after a few minutes the fire is snuffed out, but there is no sign of the Martian. As the criminal is about to take a step forward J'onn burst up through the floor and delivers a devastating uppercut, knocking the man clean out. After disabling the rest of the weapons J'onn decides it's time to finish this and goes after Miller.

Meanwhile Michael Miller is standing with his flamethrower pointed at the door. "We should leave the test subjects and escape with my findings, Miller," the Doctor urges.

"We ain't leaving till I settle things with Mr. Green," the meta-human answers with an excited smile on his face.

As he watches the door J'onn steps through and says, "I am only going to say this once: throw down your weapon and surrender, Miller."

"Nice new duds," the super criminal says, "hope they're made out of asbestos."

And with that he pulls the trigger and shoots out burning napalm at the alien superhero, however once the fire passes and the sprinklers turn on J'onn is still standing in the same spot, seemingly unharmed.

"What the hell are you shooting at?" the Doctor shouts.

"What do ya…" before Miller can finish the mental image disappears and J'onn falls out of the ceiling, turns solid, and slams a two armed downward blow on to the strong man, knocking him to his knees.

As J'onn removes the flamethrower from his dazed opponent, the Doctor tries to hit him with a stun gun and gets backhanded across the room. Miller does better and hits the Martian with a backwards mule kick which knocks him back. Though he stumbles backwards a step J'onn is still able to crush the barrel closed and toss the weapon aside before Miller gets back to his feet.

"It's over, give up," he tells the strong man.

"Sorry, but I don't ever back down from a fight," Miller answers before cocking back his fist and throwing a super strength punch at the Martian. To his amazement, however, his fist goes straight through J'onn without effecting him at all. After throwing a few more punches to the same effect the meta-human shouts, "Come on, fight me!"

In response, J'onn reaches through his chest and turns just solid enough to grab something vital. Miller cries out in pain and drops to his knees as J'onn pull out his arm. The criminal looks up at him and says, "Cheater."

J'onn looks down at him, tilts his head to the side, before hitting him with a right hook that knocks him out.

The Martian then walks over to the unconscious Doctor and looks into his mind. He finds that the mad scientist was trying to recreate Miller's powers on the children in an attempt to perfect a method of creating superhuman weapons. After destroying the evil man's data J'onn revives the children. The first one to wake up is Joseph Certa, who looks up at J'onn and asks, "Are you a superhero?"

"I came here to save you," the Martian answers.

"That's good enough for me," the tired child answers.

…

In the middle of the night Officer Harriet Callahan wakes up and is compelled to get dressed and drive into the city to an abandoned office building. She steps inside with her weapon drawn and finds the missing children there waiting for her.

"Hey guys," she says kneeling down, "are all of you okay?"

"Yeah, the spaceman saved us," one of them answers.

"The spaceman?" she asks.

"Yeah an alien superhero, like Superman but cooler because he's all green and alien-looking," another kid answers.

"He beat up the assholes who grabbed us and tied them up in the other room," a little girl says, "I went back there and kicked them a bit but the cool green man must have beat them up good because none of them woke up."

"Good job," Officer Callahan says. "Wait here for a bit, I'll be right back." She walks into the back room and finds the Doctor and the entire gang tied up and laying in the middle of the room, including Miller who has a steel girder wrapped around him. "Interesting," she says looking at them, "their all gift wrapped."

One of the children looks in from the door and says, "Mrs. Policewoman, can we go home now?"

Harriet looks back and smiles, "I think we can arrange that."

…

The next day Dr. Erdel is back at home taking it easy while his daughter is in the shower when there is a knock at the door. He opens it to find a tall black man dressed in a dark blue suite with a red tie standing there. The man says, "Um…is Shelly here?"

Dr. Erdel points at the man and says, "You're him, aren't you?"

"Yes," J'onn says flatly.

"Its alright, son, come in," the kindly scientist says, ushering J'onn inside. "You know even if my ticker had stopped for good I would have died happy having been able to make my teleporter work and meet you."

"I'm glad that didn't happen," J'onn says.

"So am I, and if I'm understanding things right, I have you to thank for that," Erdel says.

"It was the least I could do," J'onn tells him.

"Well I thank you for it anyway, and once I'm feeling better if you don't mind I want to sit you down and have you tell me everything there is to know about Mars," the elderly scientist eagerly says.

"Once you're feeling better it would be my honor," J'onn tells him.

"I assure you, sir, the honor would be mine," Erdel says. "Now if you'll excuse me," he turns around, points his head upstairs and shouts, "Shelly, your new friend's here! I'll be in the lab!" before walking back to his laboratory.

Shelly quickly runs down stairs and smiles when she sees J'onn standing there. "Hey!"

"Hello," J'onn answers. "Your father is a nice man."

"Yeah, a bit frustrating at times though," she answers. "I heard on the news about those kids you saved."

"Yes, thank you again for helping me," he says.

"No problem," she answers. "Hey can you show me your new…you again?" she asks. J'onn morphs back into his hero form and Shelly begins walking around him appraisingly. "Wow, I can do some good work. Now all you need is a name."

"I have a name," J'onn answers.

"No, honey, I mean a superhero name," she explains, "J'onn J'onzz the…" she lets the sentence hang.

"The Martian?" J'onn suggests.

Shelly shrugs. "That's a start but it's not enough. Did you have any titles at home like the Savior, the Defender, the Punisher, or something?" she asks.

"I was an honorary member of the Manhunters," he answers. She looks at him questioningly and he says, "Think Martian police."

"Actually that's good, J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter!" Shelly says. "That has a good ring to it."

"So it does," he admits.

Before they can say anything else the phone rings. Shelly walks over, picks it up, and says hello only to hand it over to J'onn saying, "It's for you."

J'onn takes the phone and says into it, "I'm here."

"Hello, J'onn," Officer Callahan answers, pronouncing his name correctly for the first time.

"How did you know I'd be here?" he asks.

"You're not the only detective in town, Mr. J'onzz," she answers.

"Apparently not," he says. "What do you want?"

"Only to thank you for proving my gut right, and to tell you that I now consider you an asset so expect to see more of me," the policewoman explains.

J'onn smiles and answers, "Sound like fun," before she hangs up.

He hands the phone back to Shelly who asks, "New girlfriend?"

"No, but maybe a new partner," he answers.

…

Michael Miller is laying on his cot in his reinforced cell when the door opens and a man in a black coat enters and hands him a cell phone. Miller takes the phone and says into it, "Hello?"

"I never gave you permission to work with the good Doctor, Michael," a calm and refined voice answers.

"Well, King, you never told me not to take the job either," Miller retorts.

The Getaway King chuckles a bit at that and says, "You know, Michael, I can get you out of your current predicament, but you'd have to make it worth my time and effort."

"And how do I do that?" he asks.

"Our town has a new visitor, the creature who defeated you and ended your operation. I predict that this visitor will end up very bad for my business so I've taken some steps and found someone who can help you level the playing field if you would be interested in taking the alien on again," the Getaway King answers. "I must warn you however that excepting this challenge will require extensive…modification on your part. While it would be fair to give more time to think this over, the situation doesn't allow that, so I'll need your answer now. Are you in, Michael?"

Miller smiles, "Yeah, King. I'm in."

_The end. For now. Tell me what you think!_


End file.
